A COUPLE are riding from Bampton to Bampton, via Bampton, to raise money for their daughter’s school.

RAF sergeant Tom Buxton and his wife, Army Warrant Officer Nikki Buxton, who live in Bampton, Oxfordshire, are riding more than 730 miles in just five days to visit the two other communities in England which share the name.

The couple set off on Monday from Bampton Primary School, in Bowling Green Close, to ride 300 miles to Bampton in Cumbria, before heading to Bampton in North Devon, then heading home.

They are raising money for the Friends of Bampton School to buy new equipment for the school.

Sgt Buxton, 40, and his wife, also 40, live in Bampton with their daughter Natalie, eight, who is a pupil at the school.

Sgt Buxton, who is based at RAF Brize Norton, said: “I haven’t managed to do much training, I’m in the Air Force, which doesn’t lead to a great amount of time off. My wife’s in the Army and she’s tried her best too.”

He added: “I think we’ll manage. One way or another, we will all make it home.”

Sgt Buxton did a similar ride last year, alongside the school’s deputy headteacher, Paul Atkins, riding 137 miles to Bampton in Devon in just 24 hours to raise money for a new classroom.

Mr Adkins is also taking part in this year’s ride. This year’s challenge has a second phase, with teachers, parents and pupils challenged to walk a combined total of 730 miles, to match the cyclists, on Thursday, August 21.

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